LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Was the IRS right?

5/16/2013

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

There’s a justified hue and cry about the reported targeting of Tea Party groups by the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS chief dismissed in scandal,” May 16).

But too often, facts are lost or ignored by the media in this type of situation. The question remains: Were Tea Party groups in fact violating their tax-exempt status by engaging in partisan politics? Certainly this is as important as who ordered the inquiries.

■ One tired teacherEven though I have 14 years left before I can retire under State Teachers Retirement System requirements, I am a tired teacher. I am not weary from my students or the demands of my profession, but from outside forces that claim to understand the educational system better than a practitioner.

My colleagues and I have been under attack for years, but now the buzz on social media is that I chose my calling because of the perks I receive. How absurd. As an 18-year-old entering college, I did not focus on what insurance coverage I would receive in my midlife years.

I chose my future based on the experiences of my earlier schooling. I chose teaching because compassionate teachers challenged me to grow and excel. I wanted to exemplify their illustration of service to others and help forge the next generation. My life decision had nothing to do with salary or benefits.

For years, I have invited naysayers to visit my classroom, but no one has ever taken up the offer. I know why. It is easier to cast a stone than pick it up and replace it on the pile when you are wrong.

ROBYN HAGERichmond Road

Editor’s note: The writer is a teacher at Navarre Elementary School in Toledo.

■ Gitmo not like Cleveland slaveryThe May 13 Rob Rogers editorial cartoon comparing the 10-year imprisonment of the three women in Cleveland to Guantanamo Bay was an offensive and lame analogy.

Comparing the slavery of three innocent women to the detention of unlawful combatants who fight us under the flag of hatred, ignorance, and religious bigotry displays an abject failure to appreciate the significance of either situation.

At great expense to the American taxpayer, the Gitmo detainees receive food, shelter, medical care, and a first-class soccer field. Their needs of daily living are met substantially better than they could hope to receive in the ratholes where they were captured.

Once President Obama understood the burden of his office, he realized that Gitmo is keeping us safe.

DAVID BAEHRENOttawa Hills

■ Double talk about tanksThe May 14 letter to the editor by Sen. Rob Portman and Rep. Jim Jordan, “Lima tank plant to remain vital,” was a lot of double-speak in behalf of keeping the money flowing to our military-industrial tank complex.

Just as the the battleships of World War II were rendered obsolete by a few cheap planes with well-aimed bombs, so will the Abrams tank be made antique by a few well-aimed, cheap enemy drones. Let’s at least devote our limited resources to future wars, not past ones.

RAYMOND CORRIGANPerrysburg

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